Contrary to popular myth and dogma, the men who consistently beguile women are not the saturnine rake, the alpha male, Mr. Nice, or the big spender. As the author of Seductress and Circle of Eros points out in this surprising and insightful study, the ladies' men of note are a complex species altogether different. Betsy Prioleau cuts through the traditional lore to reveal who these master lovers really are and how they practice their arts, and finds that while these men run the gamut, the common thread is that they radiate joie de vivre, intensity, and sex appeal; above all, they adore women. And after a critique of the 21st-century sexual malaise, she argues that society needs ladies' men today more than ever.

"Betsy Prioleau's witty and compelling book is a fresh take on the question of what women want. I wholly agree with her thesis that the true seducer is not the swaggering Don Juan of myth and melodrama, but the ordinary-looking man who likes, loves, and listens to women."óMolly Haskell